Over-the-counter cough medicines aimed at babies and toddlers are being removed from sale, amid fears that they could be dangerous.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has identified six products aimed at children under the age of two that could be unsafe and asked for them to be removed from sale. The move comes after concerns over certain ingredients in the products that could be dangerous, especially if the wrong dose was given or parents used more than one product at a time.

The six baby cough medicines being removed from sale are:

Asda Children’s Chesty Cough Syrup
Calcough Chesty
Boots Chesty Cough Syrup 1 Year Plus
Children’s Chesty Cough
Boots Sore Throat and Cough Linctus 1 Year Plus
Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup

A further 50 to 90 cough medicines which are licensed for use in over two-year-olds will also be removed from shelves until they can be repackaged to include advice that they should not be given to children under the age of two. For now, though, they will be kept behind pharmacy counters.

Sara Coakley, from the MHRA, said, “This is a precautionary measure. These ingredients are not effective on children under two and parents are tempted to give more to their children or to mix them with other things that can cause overdose.”

Instead of cough medicines, the MHRA say, “What we are recommending is that parents use single ingredient treatments, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen.” They also advise trying more traditional remedies, such as glycerol, honey and lemon for a cough and vapour rubs for clearing stuffy noses.

The 12 ingredients that caused concern are:

Brompheniramine
Chlorphenamine
Diphenhydramine
Dextromethorphan
Pholcodine
Guaifenesin
Ipecacuanha
Phenylephrine
Pseudoephedrine
Ephedrine
Oxymetazoline
Xylometazoline

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